Patent lawsuit filing in US district courts in August was down on July and June, but above the monthly average for the year. First-time filer Autumn Cloud had the most cases in August while Shipping & Transit moved past the 100-case mark for the year

US district court patent litigation by month

2013

2014

2015

2016

January

486

330

445

276

February

547

447

492

297

March

403

499

509

393

April

604

681

391

456

May

502

387

608

385

June

484

415

653

460

July

476

421

478

414

August

521

396

309

405

September

552

320

327

October

515

340

439

November

578

334

840

December

422

439

279

Total for year

6,090

5,009

5,770

3,086

The number of patent lawsuits filed in US district court fell to 405 in August, according to figures taken from the Docket Navigator database.

This compares with 414 cases in June and the 2016 high of 460 cases in June.

The August figure was above the average monthly figure for the year so far of 386 cases, a result of a slow start to the year for patent suit filing.

This compares with full-year monthly average figures of 481 in 2015, 417 in 2014 and 508 in 2013.

According to Managing IP’s analysis of figures taken from Docket Navigator, newcomer Autumn Cloud filed the most cases in August, with 15.

Serial filer Uniloc was the second-most-active filer. Its 12 cases pushed its 2016 total up to 80 by the end of August. A further six cases filed on September 6 moved Uniloc’s total up further to 86.

2016’s leading filer Shipping & Transit filed 11 cases in August, pushing its year total into three figures with 101 cases.

Managing IP regularly tracks US patent litigation filing. Subscribers and triallists can view our analysis of filing in July here and our analysis of the busiest companies and law firms at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board in the first six months of this year here.